"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it?Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom?Material abundance without character is the path of destruction."

Quote by:

Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

Source:

Attributed. No source found. Supposedly in a letter to John Adams
as quoted in John A. Stormer, None Dare Call it Treason (Florissant, MO: Liberty Bell Press, 1964) 93.